DACC nursing woes pinpointed, changes advised

LAS CRUCES — The nursing program Doña Ana Community College ran into trouble partly because of poor communication, an unclear chain of responsibility, high faculty turnover and bureaucracy.

That's according to a long-awaited report released this week from a task force at New Mexico State University, DACC's parent institution.

The report doesn't do any finger-pointing, but spells out in generalities what the task force thinks went wrong, prompting the nursing school to lose its national accreditation over the summer.

Also, the group made recommendations and concluded that progress is being made toward re-acrediting the program, described as "vital to the local community."

Still, at least one member of a local nursing advocacy group criticized the report, saying it was lacking.

Many members of the group — called Health, Education, Advocacy & Legal, or, H.E.A.L. — have been preoccupied since the report was released. They said the document has taken a backburner since a DACC nursing professor was struck by a vehicle Thursday, and they're preoccupied about her welfare.

Findings

Pay levels and teaching loads were "likely" contributors to a frequent turnover among faculty and directors in the DACC nursing program, the report states. Also, the program struggled to maintain enough master's degree-educated, part-time instructors. The report said bureaucracy, too, was to blame.

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"Good candidates are often lost because of budgeting and NMSU Human Resource policies that require DACC to take nine to 10 different steps before an offer can be made once a candidate is selected," it states.

Critics, too, have said high faculty and director turnover created an unstable workplace. But many of them have placed blame upon DACC President Margie Huerta, accusing her of creating a stressful work environment. In recent years, they've said, the nursing school has suffered likely because of a lack of academic leadership experience by program Director Tracy Lopez.

"They should have said that during the past nine years of Huerta's administration we have had seven nursing directors, and many of them left or were replaced by Huerta's intervention, not because of the reasons they state," said Earl Nissen, a DACC part-time faculty member who also belongs to H.E.A.L.

Huerta, in an NMSU news release about the task force's report, said many of the "items have already been addressed or are in the process of being addressed."

"The commission's findings indicate DACC is on the right track with how we are best benefiting the students and the program," she said.

A request for an interview with Huerta on Friday was declined through DACC spokeswoman Jaylene McIntosh. Huerta for weeks has avoided interviews.

Other shortcomings were a failure to consistently evaluate and mentor faculty and the absence of a clear channel by NMSU or DACC to monitor re-accreditation processes, according to the report. Also, there weren't measurable goals to gauge students' progress, according to the document.

"The report says there was inconsistent and unclear communication between NMSU and DACC on accreditation," Nissen said. "We lost the NMSU president and provost because of this problem, but Huerta is allowed to stay in position."

Nissen referred to former NMSU President Barbara Couture and former Provost Wendy Wilkins, who departed abruptly last semester. The nursing fiasco is believed to be part of the reason, though NMSU officials have not said why publicly.

The task force was chaired by Michael Morehead, dean of the NMSU Education College, who was out of the office Friday.

Changes called for

The report notes that a "key recommendation" is to create a "Nursing Council" to oversee schools across NMSU's various campuses. Plus, the task force specified that the accreditation status of the DACC nursing program should be "plainly articulated" to all students and prospective students.

Many of the 100 DACC nursing students impacted by the accreditation denial had complained that they were never told the program's standing was in a warning status and at risk for losing the certification.

So far, two new full-time master's degree-level nursing faculty have been hired by DACC to improve the program, NMSU officials said.

"To help build faculty stability and retention in the nursing program, DACC has implemented a compensation plan for nursing faculty that includes sign-on bonuses, retention bonuses and market competitive salaries," according to an NMSU news release.

The report also advised, among other steps:

• DACC identify two people, possibly including the nursing program director, to be responsible for preparing for accreditation.

• DACC hire an outside consultant to "mentor and assist the program director" in creating reports required by the Georgia-based National League for Nursing Accreditation, as part of the accreditation review.

• Creating a plan to mentor faculty.

"The committee, which included both internal and external reviewers, developed strong recommendations concerning institutional accreditation processes," said NMSU Interim President Manuel Pacheco, in a news release.

The university indicated it's streamlining "all NMSU faculty hiring" and simplifying its processes, including eliminating a requirement that all new hires pass through the provost's office. In addition, NMSU has named Roberta Derlin, associate provost, to be in charge of "developing a system-wide approach to monitor accreditation status and preparation."

Other task force members were Ann Debooy, Fred Lillibridge, Suzanne Quillen, Shelly Stovall and Pam Schultz, who heads a separate nursing program at NMSU.

H.E.A.L. concerns

Sunday, H.E.A.L. members voted to express concerns about what they see as a lack of progress so far toward re-establishing the nursing accreditation, said the group's executive director Leigh DeRoos on Monday. That's after Nissen spoke to NLNAC director Sharon Tanner a few days earlier about the accreditation process.

DeRoos noted that a news release about four months ago from the school indicated it would be working quickly toward the recertification, but it doesn't appear to have taken the second procedural step with the NLNAC.

After a request from the Sun-News, McIntosh sent a timeline indicating DACC is preparing for the second step, submitting what's called a "candidacy presentation" to the accrediting body. That's slated to happen this spring.

"DACC is following all NLNAC guidelines and proceeding not only expeditiously, but taking utmost caution that appropriate steps are being taken to achieve initial accreditation," McIntosh said.

The task force said it believes the nursing program said DACC is making progress toward a turnaround.

The NLNAC has ignored a number of requests by the Sun-News for interviews, ever since news broke in early August 2012 that DACC had been denied its accreditation.

The rejected accreditation doesn't stop DACC from operating a nursing program or keep students from attending and graduating. But it does curtail students' job options upon graduation.

Diana Alba Soular can be reached at (575) 541-5443; follow her on Twitter @AlbaSoular